Every now and again, your party insists on splitting and fighting in two different places at once. At least mine does. For a while, I struggled with keeping things interesting for all parties involved, until I hit on the most obvious, simple idea. I put everyone in one massive initiative order, and simply “swap scenes” […]

We don’t like our players to metagame, but let’s be honest: It’s really hard not to do ourselves. When our players are strategizing out loud, we listen in, of course. And often we modify our stuff based on it. “It’s for a better story!” we say. Give this a try: Leave the table sometimes. Let […]

No, not literally. Jeez, what do you think I am? Chaotic evil? No … steal your players’ ideas. One of the “secrets” of DMs who have been in the game a while is that they’ll put an apparently impossible problem in front of their players, or a mystery that seems unsolvable. Except that the DM […]

It’s Tolkien Reading Day! There’s one delightful passage in The Hobbit, later quoted in The Lord of the Rings, that the House of Elrond in Rivendell is “a perfect house, whether you like food or sleep or story-telling or singing, or just sitting and thinking best, or a pleasant mixture of them all.” What’s this […]

If you’re ever stuck on something with planning a campaign, here’s something to try: Take a walk Seriously. Think of the one question you want to find an answer to (“Why does the villain want xyz thing?”) and just start walking. Mull over different ideas and you’ll eventually hit on something. When you get home, […]

All they do is win win win no matter whatGot treasure on their mind they can never get enough As DMs, it actually really can get a little tiring having your players win all the time. All your monsters get wiped. Your BBEG gets blapped in three rounds flat. You might down a player every […]

Quick tip to make your combat flow more quickly: Use monsters’ average damage. Your players really won’t mind (or they might … ask them?!) And it’s a lot easier for you, the DM, to do less in-head math as you play. Crits, of course, still get rolled out, but everything else goes so much more […]

Last night I had the first migraine headache I’ve had in forever. It sucks. So today I have a “headache hangover” – still sensitive to light, noise and any kind of sudden head movement (like sneezing earlier was a rough time). I’m scheduled for D&D tonight, and I am going to DM. But I’m also […]

The other day, I came across a useful resource: The X Card. It’s basically a no-pressure way of communicating at the table when things are going on that make a player uncomfortable. Open communication is important, both in life and at your game, and this is a tool that basically facilitates that. It may well […]

​If your players are anything like mine, they occasionally do things that end up with you sighing and wondering internally whether they’re actually trying to kill each other’s characters. Player vs player combat is something that I’ve had conflicting feelings about as a DM. I know I’ll challenge my players enough by myself and don’t […]